Research Catalog

Title

Harvesting the biosphere : what we have taken from nature / Vaclav Smil.

Author

Smil, Vaclav.

Publication

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, ©2013.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

viii, 307 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"The biosphere -- the Earth's thin layer of life -- dates from nearly four billion years ago, when the first simple organisms appeared. Many species have exerted enormous influence on the biosphere's character and productivity, but none has transformed the Earth in so many ways and on such a scale as Homo sapiens. In Harvesting the Biosphere, Vaclav Smil offers an interdisciplinary and quantitative account of human claims on the biosphere's stores of living matter, from prehistory to the present day. Smil examines all harvests -- from prehistoric man's hunting of megafauna to modern crop production -- and all uses of harvested biomass, including energy, food, and raw materials. Without harvesting of the biomass, Smil points out, there would be no story of human evolution and advancing civilization; but at the same time, the increasing extent and intensity of present-day biomass harvests are changing the very foundations of civilization's well-being. In his detailed and comprehensive account, Smil presents the best possible quantifications of past and current global losses in order to assess the evolution and extent of biomass harvests. Drawing on the latest work in disciplines ranging from anthropology to environmental science, Smil offers a valuable long-term, planet-wide perspective on human-caused environmental change."--Jacket.

Subjects

• Natural resources > Accounting
• Earth (Planet) > Surface
• Biomass
• Biosphere
• Surface of the Earth
• Environmental auditing

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-295) and indexes.

Contents

I. The earth's biomass: stores, productivity, harvests -- Biomass: definitions and compositions -- Biomass stores: means and extremes -- Biomass productivities -- Phytomass harvests -- Zoomass harvests -- Land cover and productivity changes -- II. History of the harvests: from foraging to globalization -- The evolution of foraging -- Crops and animals -- Biomass fuels and raw materials -- III. Adding up the claims: harvests, losses, and trends -- Changing land cover and land use -- Harvesting the biosphere -- Long-term trends and possible worlds.

Call Number

JSE 16-157

ISBN

• 9780262018562
• 026201856X
• 9780262528276
• 0262528274

LCCN

2012021381

OCLC

808684323

Author

Smil, Vaclav.

Title

Harvesting the biosphere : what we have taken from nature / Vaclav Smil.

Imprint

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, ©2013.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-295) and indexes.

Connect to:

http://mitpress-ebooks.mit.edu/product/harvesting-biosphere

Other Form:

Electronic resource 9780262312257

Research Call Number

JSE 16-157